I'd never read any David Weber before selecting this particular book from one the shelves in our collection. I don't know why this is so, given that a lot of his books sound like exactly the kind of book I would read.

So I decided the other day that I just simply had to put this right, and read one. I settled on Mutineer's Moon. It seemed to me from the write-up on the back of the book that this brought together the exoticness of a galactic space opera with major space battles, and a near future Earth story. Well, that's my kind of thing so it was time to see if it managed to deliver the goods.

Well in a large number of ways it did.

When the story begins we join Lt Commander Colin MacIntyre, a NASA astronaut on a flight over the moon. On his mission he detects a void inside the moon, this surprise was minor compared what happens next. He is captured by the Moon, and discovers the Earth's Moon is a vast artifically intelligent Imperium Battleship.

Millennia before the crew of the Dahak mutinied, and the ship's crew exiled to prehistoric Earth. This mutiny has never resolved, and the mutineers remain secreted away on Earth their lives extended with the technologies they still control in their exile. Times though have changed and the Imperium is once more under attack from its old enemy, and Earth is now on their path. Dahak (the ship) decides that action is necessary and offers the captaincy to Colin.

Colin's job is not going to be easy by any means, for as well as preparing mankind for the impending fight, he also needs to investigate the extent of the mutineers' affects of mankind.

I found myself involved with the characters in this book. When reading a book this is something I want to happen. It doesn't always happen, and I can definitely enjoy a book even if the characters don't completely engage me – well okay, if the plot itself is good enough I can.

And in some ways it's the plot that is the weak point in this book. The idea is pretty good, but I just felt it could have been done better. For one thing, the book tells a tale in which humanity is threatened with extinction. This should really engage me more than it did. I may have liked the characters but I didn't really feel the drama that Earth's doom should encite.

But it isn't a bad book by any means. There is a lot in here to encourage me to read more David Weber books. Okay, could have been better, but enough to encourage me to try again.